SCL

Yup! Or, sometimes, you actually are concerned about something and want prayer for it – but everyone else has such brilliant, awe-inspiring, tragic prayer requests that your request for prayer for your Auntie Doris whose cat has died sounds really trivial in comparison.

Was in a group once where the leader wouldn't move onto the next person until you had come up with a request. Then you can 'hear' the others thinking "Come on fishboy, just make something up. We want to go home now."

No pressure.

<-SB><

My problem is not so much prayer requests, as the "we're going to go round the circle and everyone is going to thank God for one thing" situation. Its not that i'm not thankful for stuff, its just that i go blank. I often end up thanking God for pizza or something absurd.

Or the typical, "2 unspokens!"

I think our bible study has forced people to come up with anything because if someone doesn't have something we jokingly retort back with, "Oh so life's going perfect?!"

whats really good is when prayer request become "one ups"…who xan be the most dramatic in the delivery about the distant cousin who has the dreaded very rare disease…b/c we would never actually pray about ourselves and be transparent, would we?

I literally don't understand not having a prayer request?

Definitely guilty. There's always the blanket, "I just think we need to lift up our church…" request. Or the "We always need to lift up our troops" request. That one's usually more popular with the older folks.

Not only have I been guilty of searching frantically for a prayer request, but there's also been times where I calculate my prayer's introduction. I know, I know. It's silly.

right now, for me, there's really no point in making one up since i'm with the same six people (my teammates) all the time.

but what i have done in the past is just ask them to pray and have God lead them in what to pray. 'cause i'm at a point in my life where i don't just need prayer, i want it. i enjoy praying for others and being prayed for by others.

i mean, if we believe that the Holy Spirit resides in each of us and that God speaks through Him, then why not actually listen to Him?

Here's a decent trick. If you can't think of anything for yourself, just repeat the prayers of the people who have come before you. It's like, you're so awesomely spiritual that you simply can't bear to pray for yourself. No, all you want to do is make sure that God heard that previous prayer about Aunt Doris and her cat. (See what I did there?)

I just want to lift up…uh…you know,…just…ummmm…..well, God is doing soooo much right now and….uh…I think we need to pray silently and then Jon Acuff will close.

"So I googled my head."

*jealous*

peace|dewde

i actually have the opposite problem.

i don't like asking for prayer, so i feel like one of the people who make something up just to fill the air when i actually do have one. and they sound made up. once for my husband's job. once for my grandmother's salvation. and once for, yes, my atheist neighbor's salvation.

it's embarrassing taking the chance on looking like the spiritual chump. i like handling my own prayer life, unless it's something super important…like someone's soul.

Totally true. Love it. Very funny. Prayer request time cracks me up when people go into long explanations about the person etc. and then, when we actually pray, we go through the same story. sigh. Is that double praying?

good one Jon- i like the google metaphor, i couldn't think of a better way to describe that! I'm not a talkative person by nature and i wonder if God minds that i don't really have much to say, if anything?
I think he can understand personality types

Everybody knows somebody who is trying to quit smoking. That one's good for many, many requests. "Please pray for my aunt who is trying to stop smoking." Sympathetic nods and murmurs will follow.

guilty. my brother offers me an excellent source of prayer requests. he is catholic and i am protestant. there's a running joke between the two of us that we pray for one another's salvation. when the prayer jar is dry, i simply say:
"Please continue to keep my brother in your prayers. he is stil…..searching."

(clearly, we are both comfortable with our faiths and that's why we joke about it.)

The best part of Ferris Bueller is when he's racing home before his parents get there, or maybe when he talks directly into the camera. Hard to say. I big red monkey butt heart that movie…

What were we talking about? Oh yeah – prayer. I just say, "No, I'm good".

I feel more guilty when we're taking praises, especially praises about weekend services in staff meetings. My mind is blank at that time of day, and then my intern dances all over my head with how much he loves the kids and how well it went in children's ministry. I feel like a real bum, and I assume at some point they'll fire me and hire him.

On the prayer request note, I guess I don't like doing it. I'll e-mail if you if I want you to pray for something. I want to sit in prayer meetings the way I get through worship: head down, arms in tight, feeling uncomfortable with the displays of emotions.

When I am asked, I just say, "Nah, I'm good, thanks." I am really ok with that.

I too am guilty!! But in my group, if you don't have anything to say within the next two minutes, the leader shuts it down right there and starts to pray. So when I do have that problem, the people in my group don't really seem to notice…so it's all good!!

Guilty. Totally guilty.

And did you just put Ferris Bueller and AutoTrader.com in the same paragraph? I like the way your mind works, young man….

Actually, 2 weeks ago I started a women's Bible study. The leader said, "What should we do about prayer requests?" I shot my hand up and said, "Let's be honest. We're women and we talk too much as it is. I'm not saying prayer is bad but I came to discuss the Bible study, not to pray about the neighbors' best friends' cousin who has a guinea pig with a claw infection." Yes, I did say that.

Stace -

What'd that guinea pig ever do to you? You are so selfish sometimes!

404: Prayer not found

Yeah so my new go to prayer request is "I'd like to pray for the universe and everything that may or may not exist within it." I just want to be thorough.

You googled your head? That's pretty funny! I'll have to use that one.
I love the "praises" that people mention when we're taking prayer requests too. Things like, "My husband was out of town all week and I survived at home with the kids. Praise God!" Don't know why, but that always gives me a laugh.

First of all, "googling your brain" is just hilarious! GOOD STUFF!

While some folks can't come up with a prayer request others think it's "Open Mic Night" and that's where I'm tempted to get a tad more nut-job-ish!

I guess I am a bit of a simpleton. I just mention one or two things I am praying about myself, whether it is my husband still have a job in this tough economy (which prompts a quick shout out prayer for those who don't have jobs), or my neighbor's guniea pig's claw infe….nevermind…

My life is generally going pretty well … but our Bible study is perfectly fine with not having a request.

But in all honesty, it's a good skill to "google the brain" for something you should be praying for. I need to pray more … I'll be sitting in Bible study and think, "Oh yeah, my brother is in Iraq right now… perhaps we could pray for him." I sound heartless to have forgotten that, I'm just scattered … pregnant with my fifth and forgetting every last thing.

michele

I like university student ones.

"Pray for a successful exam result."

I learnt that it's better to read the assigned materials than hope on God to wing you through it

It depends on the group. I don't like to share deep, emotionally charged prayer requests willy nilly, especially if it is a large group or an infrequent meeting.

It just seems frivolous in some instances, like someone is taking minutes and we MUST have a record of group prayer or the meeting cannot be certified by Archangel Michael.

When I am with a core group of trusted kindred, I will share openly of prayer and praise, but otherwise, I keep it to my own personal God time.

My husband and I attended a prayer meeting at a friend's church. It started at 7:30. Early on, the leader said he felt the Spirit was telling him that someone in the room needed prayer and we weren't leaving until that person came forward. The meeting ended at midnight with no one stepping forward. I tried to come up with something just to get out of there.

good plug for autotrader.com…it's like you work for them or something joel

wow….. i went to bible school… we started every class with prayer…. and when several prayer requests were mentioned i always found myself trying to think of one…. SOOOO funny!

What about prayer requests you've read about on the blogs you read? "So there's this family, who I've never met, seen or talked to, but they are having a really rough time…." You feel like you know those people but it doesn't translate into prayer request time.

Katdish-

I'm a rodent hater. There. So what of it? You're gonna get schooled.

I'm so mad I had to delete the frist comment due to all the swearing.

Katdish -

I might just have to google you Chuck Norris style.

hahaha. This is hilarious. I admit I have given into "prayer pressure" often, and when I haven't, I have felt guilty afterward. Crazy, right?

I once had a pastor ask me if I had any prayer concerns. When I said, "No. Not that I'd like to share", (Because sometimes, that just has to be ok) he said, "So there's nothing in your life that you would like us to pray for? Everything is good?" He said it in such a way to make me think that he knew things in my life that he thought I needed prayer for, but seriously dude, let it lie.

I've decided if I'm not in a vulnerable place at the moment, that's alright. I'll get there and I don't want to just make something up. I think my poor grandmother has "had pneumonia" like, 12 times already.

I liked what Jess said. I get together with a few deep Christian friends who are committed to their life in Christ to pray together on a weekly basis. I am very comfortable sharing all my prayer requests with them, and have no problem being open. I do like getting together as a small group; a large group not so much. Few people know me VERY WELL. I don't just tell everyone everything about my life.

I don't really like huge prayer groups because it seems to be judging time. People are judging us by what we are choosing to pray for. What God lays on OUR hearts may seem trivial to others, but we are to pray about all things, and who is man to judge?

you feel like such a bad Christian if you have nothing to pray for. i find that saying you have an "unspoken" is a legitimate alternative.

Oh, I also hate how prayer time turns into storytime…like "we have to pray for my neighbor, who might get saved, but back in 1957…"

20 minutes later, we wonder what the prayer request actually is.

So I googled my head and heart to try to come up with an appropriate topic.

"Googled my head and heart" — I am so going to start using this phrase in everyday conversation.

Simple two- or three-step solution:
1. Dramatic pause
2. "I have an (gulp) unspoken request."
3. (Optional, for effect) Tear in the corner of the eye.

The drama!!! The mystery!!! (The overuse of exclamation points!!!)

Caution: Loses effectiveness if overused.

Absolutely. Usually, a neighbor or distant relative is sick, so I bring that up.

why are we treating prayer requests as if they only involve the people around us? Don't we think God notices a made-up prayer request? And I'm sure he finds them humorous, as I struggle to suppress laughter when my son suddenly decides he's the world's expert in hummingbirds and starts making up "facts" out of whole cloth. But this is the maker of the universe we're talking to, who has told us he'll pay special attention when more than one person asks him for something. Is your life, your character, your family, your workplace, your neighborhood so hunky-dory that you want to take a pass on a free offer like that, and just make something up? When the one person who matters in this whole exercise already knows you're fibbing?

My husband used to drive me crazy with his lack of prayer requests! We would be sitting in Sunday School going around for prayer requests and he says, "I'm good."

I'm like, "really? You've got one grandmother in the hospital recovering from open heart surgery, another grandmother slipping away into the horror of altimers, your grandfather has an anyerism, your estranged father will be moving back into the neighborhood, your wife is in the 8th month of an incredibly difficult pregnancy while trying to homeschool your other two sons and you've got no prayer requests? I'll give you a prayer request buddy!"

So now when it's time for prayer requests he looks at me and says, "honey, do I have any prayer requests?"

Whenever I feel pressured to add a prayer request, I like to think back on some of the ones my students (I work in the children's dept at my church–I teach two classes on Sundays for K-5 grade students) have given me (autistic cat, donkeys not getting along with the horses *probably out of envy*, my great grandmother that died before i was born is still dead, etc).

When we started small groups at our church many years back, our priest did a group leader training, where he actually taught group leaders how to lead the prayer time. At the time, it seemed unnecessary, and a little like micromanagement. Then after my husbands' having led several small groups, I see it as pure genius. (or, really, the HS at work.)

He said, "Just tell people they can only share prayer requests for specific personal things, for themselves or someone in their family.
We ALL care about the troops, about world peace, about the salvation of the world, about the latest tragedy in the news, and those things are excellent things to pray for, but our small groups are for building a fellowship with one another in Christ so we learn what's really important in one anothers' lives. So let's stick with praying about immediate and specific things in our lives."

This really cut down on the number of extraneous dredging-up-random-prayer requests. It was also perfectly legitimate to just say "pass."

And really, you can't say "I'm good…" because as the Bible tells us….we aren't.

I think I'd break people giving prayer requests down into four categories:
1. Those who never say anything (couldn't find anything upon googling)
2. Those who always have at least as many requests as there are fingers on one hand (and they do not involve illness, death, natural disaster, etc.)
3. Those who always have a mysterious Unspoken request
4. Those who have one of two genuine requests about every other week or so.

I suppose there are also those who only have praises, those whose requests are never for themselves (but for their neighbor's hamster), and those who's lives are constant drama and on the verge of disaster … every week. But bless all their hearts.